Polling recently published by British Glass, undertaken by Savanta, has shown the UK public would prefer to continue recycling their glass bottles through existing household collections, rather than through a deposit return scheme. Two thirds of UK adults (69%) say that recycling glass bottles through household waste collections would be more convenient than returning them to a dedicated return point, like a supermarket. This figure increases to 77% for those aged 65+, who are more likely to face difficulties returning their bottles to reverse vending machines.

The English and Northern Irish governments remain on course to exclude glass packaging from the scope of their deposit return schemes. However, Wales and Scotland currently plan to include glass, making the recycling of glass bottles harder for consumers and putting recycling rates in jeopardy.

Speaking following the publication of the finding, British Glass’ Chief Executive, Dave Dalton, said: “It is no surprise that over two thirds of UK adults would find it more convenient to continue recycling their bottles through their household collections. We already have a proven solution to improve glass recycling, and it’s at our doorsteps.”

“The British public are already great at recycling their glass at home, and these findings stress how important it is to keep glass bottles as part of existing household collections. The public don’t want to recycle glass bottles through a DRS, and as such, introducing such a scheme would likely have a detrimental impact on glass recycling rates. We need to make recycling more, not less, convenient for consumers by keeping glass recycling kerbside. That is the only way we can achieve our industry ambition of reaching a 90% recycling rate for glass packaging by 2030.”

www.britglass.org.uk